Tarmac is the hard black surface of an airfield or a road. Laid hot, rolled flat, and smelling of summer.
The word is a trade name, short for tar macadam, after John McAdam's method of road building. In Britain it is the ordinary word for a road surface, and the drive in front of a house is tarmac. In aviation it means specifically the paved area where aircraft stand, which is why passengers are held on the tarmac. As a verb, tarmacking a drive is a real job, and rogue traders offering to do it are a real nuisance.
1nountarmacA hard road or runway surface made of tar and crushed stone.
“The plane sat on the tarmac for an hour.”
a clipping of tarmacadam, which is from tar + macadam. Originally a trademark owned by its inventor, Edgar Hooley.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA